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Former Sharpsburg woman asks judge to modify animal cruelty sentence
By ERIN JULIUS erinj@herald-mail.com
A 62-year-old former Sharpsburg woman who kept malnourished, injured and worm-infested horses on her Washington County farm was back in court Tuesday morning asking a judge to modify her sentence.
Barbara Perry Reinken entered an Alford plea in April to one felony count of animal cruelty. She was sentenced to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine on the felony count, with additional 90-day consecutive sentences for the 10 misdemeanor counts of animal neglect she pleaded guilty to.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the state has sufficient evidence to gain a conviction.
As part of the plea agreement, Reinken was placed on five years of probation to be supervised by the Department of Social Services.
Reinken has since tried to move to North Carolina, but encountered difficulty having her probation supervised by North Carolina authorities, said Edward Button, her defense attorney.
Reinken returned to Washington County in September, but having sold her home she has no place to live. She is homeless and without food, and sleeps in her car in the Wal-Mart parking lot, Button said.
Button asked Washington County Circuit Judge M. Kenneth Long to put Reinken on unsupervised probation.
Long set another hearing for Dec. 6 and suspended the reporting aspect of Reinken’s probation until the hearing so that she may return to North Carolina and work with authorities there to set up supervision, Long said.
By ERIN JULIUS erinj@herald-mail.com
A 62-year-old former Sharpsburg woman who kept malnourished, injured and worm-infested horses on her Washington County farm was back in court Tuesday morning asking a judge to modify her sentence.
Barbara Perry Reinken entered an Alford plea in April to one felony count of animal cruelty. She was sentenced to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine on the felony count, with additional 90-day consecutive sentences for the 10 misdemeanor counts of animal neglect she pleaded guilty to.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the state has sufficient evidence to gain a conviction.
As part of the plea agreement, Reinken was placed on five years of probation to be supervised by the Department of Social Services.
Reinken has since tried to move to North Carolina, but encountered difficulty having her probation supervised by North Carolina authorities, said Edward Button, her defense attorney.
Reinken returned to Washington County in September, but having sold her home she has no place to live. She is homeless and without food, and sleeps in her car in the Wal-Mart parking lot, Button said.
Button asked Washington County Circuit Judge M. Kenneth Long to put Reinken on unsupervised probation.
Long set another hearing for Dec. 6 and suspended the reporting aspect of Reinken’s probation until the hearing so that she may return to North Carolina and work with authorities there to set up supervision, Long said.
i think its a shame she's homeless, but why should she get special treatment? i'm sure there are a lot of people on probation that would like to move or travel... surely they can't all get their sentences changed??
what she did was HORRIBLE.. allowing her to be on unsupervised probation would be like not punishing her at all! maybe she should have thought of this before she sold her house!!
why is she homeless? what happened to the money she got from the sale of her home? clearly she didnt purchase a home in carolina??
something seems fishy here, to me.
